School Board approves addition of baseball, girls wrestling

Bigfork high school students will have two new options when it comes to extracurricular activities this coming school year with the addition of baseball and girls wrestling.

The Bigfork School Board voted unanimously last week to add the two sports for the upcoming 2023-24 school year.

“This really made sense for us right now,” Activities Director Matt Porrovecchio said. “With golf moving to the fall as we move into Class A, it left us with an opening for a boys and a girls sport in the spring.”

As with all Bigfork High School sports, both new additions will be partially funded by the school, with that funding paying for a head coach and one assistant.

“That will make it easier on our coaches,” Porrovecchio said. “It’s hard enough to coach as it is without having to constantly worry about fundraising.”

While baseball has never been offered at the high school level in Bigfork before, Porrovecchio says he is confident there is more than enough interest to field a team for the upcoming season.

“There is already a feeder program in place with Bigfork youth baseball,” he said. “That will help us out a lot in getting this going and it should be a win-win for both their program and ours.”

According to Porrovecchio, both sports were presented to the board with a proposed $13,000 a year budget, the same as boys and girls soccer.

Due to transportation constraints, Porrovecchio says both sports will only be offered at the varsity level for now.

While facilities are already in place for girls wrestling, the school is looking for a home field to host baseball games and has been in talks with Flathead County officials in the hopes of securing the use of Carlyle Johnson Park.

While youth fields already exist at the park, they would need to be adjusted to accommodate high school competition.

Montana hosted its first-ever high school baseball season this spring with Polson capturing the inaugural Class A championship.